Not sure why there is a mystery to all this. As long as T-Mo has the exclusive on the Pearl, other companies cannot market the phone in any way. Sidenote: I am not sure anyone has posted positive proof that T-MO's exclusive runs out on December 1. I think that was speculation, now transformed into fact. Could be, but not sure.

That explains the silence or "I dunno" from the local sales reps. Any leaking of info, access to web pages, etc. are all typically done without Cingular's approval.

I heard over a month ago that a senior VP at Cingular said that the phone was not being released to consumers until January 2007. Sales to business customers may vary. Whether that has all changed to December is anyone's guess. At the time I speculated that T-Mo must have had an exclusive on sales to non-business customers through the heavy cell-phone buying holiday season. Maybe they don't. Guess we shall see on December 1. I know the Pearl is being marketed to non-professional users [the 190 million "non-BB" users]. So maybe sales to business accounts will occur earlier.

Because of the exclusive contract everyone has to shut up, even that RIM employee who e-mailed a BBF member and said the release date to Cingular was "confidential." Cingular cannot even say "coming soon" or words to that effect because that would violate the Agreements RIM has with T-Mo.

And because low-level sales reps in stores can't keep quiet, they are the last to know anything about upcoming phones, etc. Heck, look at how mouthy some have been to BBF members. They obviously can't keep a secret which is why executives are not telling them anything.